Top Android App: PlinkArt – ADC Winner

PlinkArt is a new Android app for identifying, discovering, and sharing art. PlinkArt was the top winner in the category of Education and Reference in the Android Developer Challenge (ADC). Congratulations!

Application: PlinkArtVersion: 1.1.2Size: 319KB

Category: Reference

Price: Free

Overall Score: 4.7/5

User Interface: 4.5/5

Ease of Use: 5/5

Customizability: 4.5/5

Originality: 5/5

Indispensability: 4.5/5

PlinkArt is to art as Shazaam is to music. With PlinkArt, you simply take a picture of any piece of art you are interested in and it will analyze the image and return a selection of pieces that were recognized. When you select the correct item, the name and artist of the piece in front of you will be displayed. Additionally, it will return a the matched article from Wikipedia. This way, not only do you find out the title of the piece and the artist, you can also read up on the history, time period, and all sorts of information pertaining to what you’re looking at.

The user interface of this app is very easy to use and promotes it’s functionality as an app you can quickly pull out to get information in a split second. Also, there is a search box where you can look up any artist or title you please. The results are generated inside the app which is very refreshing; no worrying about opening up the browser or anything like that.

The Random Artwork button allows you to do just that, open a new page with a random piece of art (the page you see is the same as what you see when you take a picture of an unknown piece of artwork). This is great for anyone interested in art or history.

Also, there is a timeline spanning from the Middle Ages all the way to the current Post Modern. This is nice as described, but knowing that each type of art actually is linked to it’s own information page is incredible. For example, selecting on Social Realism will return the major figure Diego Rivera.

Lastly, a very cool part of this application that hasn’t been fully developed yet is the Suggested Galleries. In future updates, this section will make recommendations for you based on your location and your favorite artworks. This will be a great feature once the app starts to learn your preferences.

Overall this is an absolutely incredible app that has so much room to grow. As more pieces of artwork are added and features implemented, the value of this reference app will greatly increase.